Full docs or it didn’t happen

  • Cassie Findlay
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01576895.2014.911681

Abstract

‘Full docs or it didn’t happen’ was WikiLeaks’ variation on the ‘pics or it didn’t happen’ Internet meme. It highlights the importance of public access to full source documents for journalists and other researchers.

In the issues paper ‘Access’, developed after the Recordkeeping Roundtable workshop ‘Reinventing Archival Methods’,1 Roundtable co-founder Barbara Reed described the information and technology landscape that we live in as characterised by ‘the “release” of public information all over the web, through legal means (such as proactive disclosure, open data publishing) or alternative means (such as leaking, exposures in WikiLeaks style journalism)’. She went on to ask: ‘This is the early technology realisation of Derrida’s “all is archive” – what is our professional response?’

Author Biography

Cassie Findlay

Cassie Findlay is the Project Manager, Digital Archives at the State Records Authority of NSW (Sydney, Australia). She has a BA in History from the University of Sydney and a Master of Information Management (Records/Archives) from the University of New South Wales. Cassie has served on the National Council of the Australian Society of Archivists and is currently Project Lead on the review of the international standard for records management, ISO 15489. She is a co-founder of the Recordkeeping Roundtable.

Published
2014-07-30
How to Cite
Findlay C. (2014) “Full docs or it didn’t happen”, Archives & Manuscripts, 42(2), pp. 178-180. doi: 10.1080/01576895.2014.911681.
Issue
Vol 42 No 2 (2014): Special Issue: Reinventing Archival Methods
Section
Reflection articles

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